From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Apr 29, 2002  2:09 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Otis Rush
 
OTIS RUSH

Born 29 April 1934, Philadelphia, Mississippi

Vocalist / guitarist / harmonica player.
If talent alone were the formula for widespread success, Rush would
probably be Chicago's leading blues artist. The sheer emotional weight
of his voice, echoed by the searing quality of his guitar solos, creates a
uniquely dramatic atmosphere. But fate, luck, and the guitarist's own
idiosyncrasies have conspired to hold him back on several occasions
when opportunity was virtually begging to be accepted.
By 1948, when Rush moved to Chicago, he had learned to play the guitar,
which he played upside down and left-handed. After seeing Muddy Waters
perform, he knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.Willie Dixon
helped him secure a recording contract with Cobra Records in 1956. His first
single for the label, "I Can't Quit You Baby" went to # 6 on the Billboard
R&B charts. Like most of Rush's other Cobra recordings, this track was
written, arranged and produced by Willie Dixon, who also played bass on
the sessions. Later on Otis would write his own songs, but Dixon's presence
remained ubiquitous, for he could attract musicians from the top rank of
Chicago's blues elite. The gambling debts of Cobra label owner Eli Toscano
meant the end of the label in 1958. Rush subsequently recorded for Chess,
Duke, Cotillion, Capitol, Bullfrog and Quicksilver, though very little of
his recorded work saw a release. But he remains an influential, strikingly
original bluesman.

CD: Good Un's : The Classic Cobra Recordings, 1956-1958 (Westside)
Discography : http://users.exis.net/~jnc/nontech/otis_rush_discs.txt